The Criterion Collection

[Brad1963]

Originally Posted by Cinemach

The past couple Criterion sales I've looked at picking up Jules et Jim and Shoot the Piano Player on DVD, but I realize those have got to be on their way. Looking forward to The Soft Skin, which just had a new 35mm Janus print, shortly as well. And The Bride Wore Black would be very nice, though isn't that an MGM (distribution...so FOX) title?

I might convince myself to pick up the Doinel set sometime on DVD, as I don't believe those are in a rush to be upgraded. Then again the Fassbinder BRD set apparently is - and right after I picked it up during the last sale! - so those box-sets certainly aren't too exempt from blu upgrades for Piano and Jules.

And I also jumped on the World on a Wire Amazon pre-order. Though I wasn't too keen on the titles released yesterday, being a Fassbinder and available for $16.99 was too good to pass up.

I own Shoot the Piano Player and Jules et Jim on DVD. Holding onto them until BD upgrade. The Bride Wore Black is a title Criterion could end up releasing. They have a relationship with MGM and have been quite active in releasing titles over the past couple years. Hears hoping. My own thought is Criterion is not happy with the elements available for Hi Def upgrades.

[Yojimbo]

Just preordered Three Outlaw Samurai for $20.99, as well as World on a Wire and Anatomy of a Murder for $16.99. Looks like probably an error on Amazon's part, but I'm hoping they honor those prices.

[AgentOrange]

Originally Posted by drbikeshorts

Thanks for the heads up.
World on a Wire and Anatomy of a Murder pre-order

Wow. I just did the same. Those were the two main titles I wanted out of February as well. I'm not counting them honoring that pricing, but it's worth a shot to get them earlier (as opposed to waiting for the next 50% sale).

[pro-bassoonist]

Official Press Sheet





La Jetée and Sans Soleil – Blu-ray Edition

One of the most influential, radical science-fiction films ever made and a mind-bending free-form travelogue: La Jetée and Sans Soleil couldn’t seem more different—but they’re the twin pillars of an unparalleled and uncompromising career in cinema. A filmmaker, poet, novelist, photographer, editor, and now videographer and digital multimedia artist, Chris Marker (A Grin Without a Cat) has been challenging moviegoers, philosophers, and himself for years with his investigations of time, memory, and the rapid advancement of life on this planet. These two films—a tale of time travel told in still images and a journey to Africa and Japan—remain his best-loved and most widely seen.

La Jetée
1963 • 27 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • Presented both in English and in French with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
Sans Soleil
1983 • 103 minutes • Color • Monaural • Presented both in English and in French with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio

GUILLAUME-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• Restored high-definition digital transfers, approved by director Chris Marker, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks
• Two interviews with filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin
• Chris on Chris, a video piece on Marker by filmmaker and critic Chris Darke
• Two excerpts from the French television series Court-circuit (le magazine): a look at David Bowie’s music video for the song “Jump They Say,” inspired by La Jetée, and an analysis of Hitchcock’s Vertigo and its influence on Marker
• Junkopia, a six-minute film by Marker about the Emeryville Mudflats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by Marker scholar Catherine Lupton, an interview with Marker, notes on the films and filmmaking by Marker, and more

TITLE: La Jetée and Sans Soleil -
CAT. NO: CC2107BD
UPC: 7-15515-09111-4
ISBN: 978-1-60465-536-0
SRP: $39.95
STREET: 2/7/12

Three Outlaw Samurai Blu-ray Edition

This first film by the legendary Hideo Gosha (Sword of the Beast) is among the most canonized chambara (sword-fighting) films. An origin-story offshoot of a Japanese television series phenomenon of the same name, Three Outlaw Samurai is a classic in its own right. In it, a wandering, seen-it-all ronin (Tetsuro Tamba) becomes entangled in the dangerous business of two other samurai (Isamu Nagato and Mikijiro Hira), hired to execute a band of peasants who have kidnapped the daughter of a corrupt magistrate. With remarkable storytelling economy and thrilling action scenes, this is an expertly mounted tale of revenge and loyalty.

1964 • 93 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Japanese with English subtitles • 2.35:1 aspect ratio

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Bilge Ebiri

TITLE: Three Outlaw Samurai (BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2108BD
UPC: 7-15515-09121-3
ISBN: 978-1-60465-537-7
SRP: $29.95
STREET: 2/14/12



Tiny Furniture Blu-ray Edition

Lena Dunham got her start making YouTube videos, but she emerged as a major talent thanks to the breakthrough success of this exceptionally sharp comedy, which garnered the twenty-four-year-old writer-director-actor comparisons to the likes of Woody Allen. The filmmaker herself plays Aura, a recent college graduate who returns to New York and moves back in with her mother and sister (played by their real-life counterparts). Though Aura is gripped by stasis and confusion about her future, Dunham locates endless sources of refreshing humor in her plight. As painfully confessional as it is endlessly amusing, Tiny Furniture is an authentic, incisive portrait of a young woman at a crossroads.

2010 • 99 minutes • Color • 5.1 Surround • 2.35:1 aspect ratio

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New digital transfer, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Director Lena Dunham talks about filmmaking and autobiography in a new interview with writer and filmmaker Nora Ephron
• New interview with writer-director Paul Schrader
• Creative Nonfiction, Dunham’s first feature film
• Four short films by Dunham
• Trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Phillip Lopate

TITLE: Tiny Furniture (BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2112BD
UPC: 7-15515-09161-9
ISBN: 978-1-60465-541-4
SRP: $39.95
STREET: 2/14/12


Anatomy of a Murder Blu-ray Edition

A virtuoso James Stewart (Vertigo) plays a small-town Michigan lawyer who takes on a difficult case: that of a young Army lieutenant (The Killing of a Chinese Bookie’s Ben Gazzara) accused of murdering the local tavern owner who he believes raped his wife (Days of Wine and Roses’ Lee Remick). This gripping, envelope-pushing courtroom potboiler, the most popular film from Hollywood provocateur Otto Preminger (Laura), was groundbreaking for the frankness of its discussion of sex—more than anything else, it is a striking depiction of the power of words. With its outstanding supporting cast—including a young George C. Scott (Patton) as a fiery prosecuting attorney and legendary real-life attorney Joseph N. Welch as the judge—and influential jazz score by Duke Ellington, Anatomy of a Murder is a Hollywood landmark; it was nominated for seven Oscars, including best picture.

1959 • 161 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 1.85:1 aspect ratio

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• New alternate 5.1 soundtrack, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray edition
• New interview with Otto Preminger biographer Foster Hirsch
• Critic Gary Giddins explores Duke Ellington’s score in a new interview
• A look at the relationship between graphic designer Saul Bass and Preminger with Bass biographer Pat Kirkham
• Newsreel footage from the set
• Excerpts from a 1967 episode of Firing Line, featuring Preminger in discussion with William F. Buckley Jr.
• Excerpts from the work in progress Anatomy of “Anatomy”: The Making of a Movie
• Behind-the-scenes photographs by Life magazine’s Gjon Mili
• Trailer, featuring on-set footage
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Nick Pinkerton and a 1959 Life magazine article on real-life lawyer Joseph N. Welch, who plays the judge in the film

TITLE: Anatomy of a Murder (BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2110BD
UPC: 7-15515-09141-1
ISBN: 978-1-60465-539-1
SRP: $39.95
STREET: 2/21/12

World on a Wire Blu-ray Edition

World on a Wire is a gloriously paranoid, boundlessly inventive take on the future from German wunderkind Rainer Werner Fassbinder (The Marriage of Maria Braun). With dashes of Stanley Kubrick, Kurt Vonnegut, and Philip K. Dick, as well as a flavor entirely his own, Fassbinder tells the noir-spiked tale of a reluctant action hero, Fred Stiller (The Odessa File’s Klaus Lowitsch), a cybernetics engineer who uncovers a massive corporate conspiracy. At risk? (Virtual) reality as we know it. Originally made for German television, this recently rediscovered, three-and-a-half-hour labyrinth is a satiric and surreal look at the weird world of tomorrow from one of cinema’s kinkiest geniuses.

1973 • 212 minutes • Color • Monaural • In German with English subtitles • 1.33:1 aspect ratio

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Fassbinder’s “World on a Wire”: Looking Ahead to Today, a fifty-minute documentary about the making of the film by Juliane Lorenz
• New interview with German-film scholar Gerd Gemünden
• New English subtitles
• Trailer for the 2010 theatrical release
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Ed Halter

TITLE: World on a Wire (BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2116BD
UPC: 7-15515-09201-2
ISBN: 978-1-60465-545-2
SRP: $39.95
STREET: 2/21/12


Vanya on 42nd Street Blu-ray Edition

In the nineties, André Gregory mounted a series of spare, private performances of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in a crumbling Manhattan playhouse. These treasures of pure theater would have been lost to time had they not been captured on film, with subtle cinematic brilliance, by Louis Malle (My Dinner with André). In Vanya on 42nd Street, a stellar cast of actors—including Wallace Shawn, Julianne Moore, Brooke Smith, and George Gaynes—embark on a full read-through of Uncle Vanya (adapted into English by David Mamet); the result is as memorable and emotional a screen version of Chekhov’s masterpiece as one could ever hope to see. This film, which turned out to be Malle’s last, is a tribute to the playwright’s devastating work as well as to the creative process itself.

1994 • 120 minutes • Color • 2.0 Surround • 1.66:1 aspect ratio

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New high-definition digital restoration, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• New documentary featuring interviews with André Gregory, the play’s director; actors Lynn Cohen, George Gaynes, Julianne Moore, Larry Pine, Wallace Shawn, and Brooke Smith; and producer Fred Berner
• Trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Steven Vineberg and a 1994 on-set report by film critic Amy Taubin

TITLE: Vanya on 42nd Street (BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2103BD
UPC: 7-15515-09091-9
ISBN: 978-1-60465-534-6
SRP: $39.95
STREET: 2/28/12

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by rkish

Any ideas as to why Criterion priced Fanny and Alexander (3 BDs) at $59.95 and Three Colors (3 BDs) at $79.95 ($20 more)?

Three Colors trilogy has basically a book in the set.

[RupertPupkin]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Three Colors trilogy has basically a book in the set.

it's a very small book (I'm talking about the three colors trilogy). Fanny comes with a great booklet...
Especially in comparison to the DVD edition of La Double Vie de Veronique (the blu-ray edition has a small book which has been edited in comparison to the BR edition).

My guess is that the price comes from the fact that you pay for 3 different movies rather than 3 discs.

I highly recommend Three Colors. (I've upgraded from DVD -> BR for Fanny and Alexander too)
I've bought last year the Mk2 Kieslowski set which was a shame on you Mk2 edition (1080i, poor masters, etc...) (they were a kind of reference in France for DVD, but it's far to be the case for BR)
For reason I don't understand the transfer which impressed me the most on the Criterion BR release was "White" (rha Juliiiie )
Red is also a gorgeous transfer.
and yes Irene...

[rock, stone]

Originally Posted by nathan_393

All Kurosawa films are classics.

...

You have made a powerful enemy today...

[Show spoiler]
Wait, I mean apathetic. You have made an apathetic enemy today...

[Yankees0222]

Originally Posted by Cocophone

Have you watched Summer Hours?

I have summer hours but havnt gotten around to watching it yet though

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by RupertPupkin

For reason I don't understand the transfer which impressed me the most on the Criterion BR release was "White" (rha Juliiiie )

I agree, though Red looks the best.

I think that the reason why White impresses the most is the fact that DVD was never able to handle the unique use of light in the film. On the R1 Miramax set and on the Artificial Eye release (which was a port of the MK2 release), the film looked quite fuzzy, and color reproduction was quite poor. When watching the film in high-definition you could easily see what type of color nuances cinematographer Edward Klosinski and Krzysztof Kieslowski were aiming for (there is an obvious color discrepancy between the footage from France and that from Poland).

A great upgrade, indeed

[The Theory]

I feel like I'm on /b/ what with all the judgments on the girl from Tiny Furniture.

I'll be curious to see this trailer that is turning people off this movie--and the ensuing 3 Reasons Criterion will inevitably produce.

Anyway, aside from that, looks like a solid enough month. Of course, I don't anticipate having any money by then, so I'll probably be sitting on the sidelines for all the awesomeness.

Originally Posted by Yankees0222

I have summer hours but havnt gotten around to watching it yet though

I enjoyed it quite a bit. Get around to it. ;-)

[rock, stone]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Are they?




I am unsure what is this "conceit" you speak of. Perhaps I am missing something because I rarely read this thread, or post in it. The fact of the matter is this: Kurosawa "gets named checked a lot" because the overwhelming majority of his films have been easily available to see in the West for years. These are the Japanese films most people have seen. And for a lot of people, especially in the West, Kurosawa is Japanese cinema. Yet you make it look as if there is some sort of anti-Kurosawa conspiracy.

Until a couple of years ago it was practically impossible to see the films of Mizoguchi, Oshima, Masumura, Mishima, Imamura -- and a lot of them are actually still impossible to see -- and a number of other important Japanese directors. This is the reason why people post that there is more to life than Kurosawa, because there really is more, and thanks to DVD, and now Blu-ray, some people have realized it. Yet you are trying to dismiss those who dare suggest that there is more beyond Kurosawa as film snobs whose only motivation is to prove that those around them "do not get it".

Pro-B

Just for the record, a straw man is this. It is attempting to redefine what someone else is saying, so that no one in their right mind would want to agree with them. It is the laziest, least admirable way to try to win an argument, and from someone with a strong knowledge of film, a decent vocabulary, and a presumed mastery of a double reeded instrument (no small feat) it is beneath you.

If you don't ever read this thread, how can you possibly feel comfortable decrying what "most posters" think? You are arguing against something that no one, not me, not anyone is trying to champion.

[The Theory]

Originally Posted by ccfixx

BFI has released a lot of other great films on blu-ray that are region-free, though, if you haven't already looked into them.

Oh wow, Něco z Alenky (Alice). I had no idea this had any blu-ray release, let alone something region-free.

A brilliant little film I'd been hoping Criterion might eventually get around to, but I'll need to grab this when I get a chance since I'm not holding my breath.

[*DrStrangelove*]

Can't find anatomy of a murder on Amazon. Have they fixed it?

[jacobb1313]

Originally Posted by *DrStrangelove*

Can't find anatomy of a murder on Amazon. Have they fixed it?

It's here.

It's also a pricing mistake that's been making some headway in the Deals forum. World on a Wire is the same.

[Eny-]

Originally Posted by *DrStrangelove*

Can't find anatomy of a murder on Amazon. Have they fixed it?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00687XO1G

Ordered both Anatomy of Murder & World on Wire.

Not cheap enough for some people though

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by rock, stone

Just for the record, a straw man is this. It is attempting to redefine what someone else is saying, so that no one in their right mind would want to agree with them.

I am not redefining anything. It is pretty obvious that you don't have a favorable opinion of those posters who have tried to suggest that there is more beyond Kurosawa.

Originally Posted by rock, stone

However, every couple days someone decides to say that there is more to life that Kurosawa and WA, and drops the mike. A few posts worth of "rutabaga, rutabaga" follow, and next week it happens again.

Originally Posted by rock, stone

If you don't ever read this thread, how can you possibly feel comfortable decrying what "most posters" think? You are arguing against something that no one, not me, not anyone is trying to champion.

But it seems to me that you are trying to redefine what I said. Let's be clear here: I said that I rarely read or post in the thread, which isn't the same as don't ever read this thread.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/5454562-post40919.html

In any event, I think that I said everything I wanted to say about Kurosawa and the possible Criterion releases of his remaining films.

[Banned User]

I went to pick up 3 colors yesterday and my store only had one copy in and it was RESERVED!. I should of waited in the parking lot for the guy and jumped him!

To make matters worse I made the mistake of buying a copy to have it shipped from B&N.
I swear if this comes beat up in a plain plastic bag with no bubble wrap like Carlos I'm going to raise evil fire demons from hell to burn down the store and take all the employees souls..

[Todd_Gaines]

Am I the only one who gets just as excited for a future Stray Dog release as well as Three Outlaw Samurai? I love that Criterion is releasing amazing Japanese cinema on BD. I want to see more released every month from all directors including more Kurosawa. This is really my only chance to see films like Pale Flower, In the Realm of the Senses, Tokyo Drifter, & Kuroneko. I already knew Kurosawa made 'mad films." But it was Pale Flower that opened my eyes to amazing cinema from Japan and made me want to watch everything from every Japanese director that I could get my hands on.

[BohemianGraham]

Originally Posted by Eny-

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00687XO1G

Ordered both Anatomy of Murder & World on Wire.

Not cheap enough for some people though

I"m honestly surprised Amazon hasn't fixed it yet. Actually, I'm honestly surprised they had the Criterion pre-orders up so early.

[Eny-]

Originally Posted by BohemianGraham

I"m honestly surprised Amazon hasn't fixed it yet. Actually, I'm honestly surprised they had the Criterion pre-orders up so early.

I gave up pre-ordering since it seems that nowadays you can get cheaper prices a week or two after release than from pre-orders. The world is upside down.

They fixed the MSRP btw, both titles at 57% off ATM.